Responsive robot lamps that interact with their surroundings

New in the world of real-life technology borrowed from science fiction: household lights that act and react like autonomous creatures.

Netherlands-based UX designer Bob de Graaf’s latest project, “Species of Illumination,” consists of two illuminating characters. The first is Wallace, a hanging lamp that seeks out a room’s darkest corners so that it may shine its beacon-of-a-face.

The other is Darwin, a robot on wheels that charges itself with daylight so that it can perform its primary function at night: lighting up anything that moves.

“The interaction and emotional relationship Wallace and Darwin bring contribute to people’s well being, in the same way that pets do,” de Graaf told We Heart.

“My inspiration comes mainly from nature. In nature everything moves all the time, some things really quickly, others really slowly, but nothing has a fixed form or place. That’s why I think it’s really interesting to work with movement, instead of denying it and working with fixed forms.”